The Perfect Score
by Allenby Beardsley
Summary: Spike and Co. go on a mission.... To take the SAT's!


A/N: Hi! Well, I've been only writing G Gundam fics, so I decided to branch out. I'm a CB fan, so I decided to try my hand at that. This all started because my friends and I were talking about the SAT's on our way home from school, and my friend Shini and I started joking about what it would be like if Spike and Co. took it. Here's the end result. Enjoy, and please review when you're done.

Special Thanks: Thanks to Shini for helping me with this idea and allowing me to write. Thanks to Takkun for giving me Jett's last name (since I forgot. .;). And thanks to Shishi for helping me out with the end.

Disclaimer: I do not own Cowboy Bebop. In here, Mr. Mintmen is a joke of my Calculus teacher (who really says jack-donkey), and that is even his room number; I do not own him either. Shion is a remake of my friend (who has an account on here; you should read her Stargate fic; her pen name is Shion-chan), and she is owned by herself. And finally, William Fence is a parody of Bill Gates, who I do not own nor would I want to.

**The Perfect Score**

Spike grumbled under his breath, a utterly vexed expression on his face as he drove the car. How did they talk him into this? How…How did they?

"Spike! Hey, Spike!" Jett yelled. "Stop zoning out and speed it up! We're going to be late!"

"Yeah, yeah…" Spike muttered, accelerating the car to five miles per hour above the speed limit.

In the back, Ed was singing loudly, swaying from side to side as Ein sat on her lap. Faye twitched in annoyance, growling, trying to keep her cool, but she soon gave up. "Grrr!… Edward, shut up!" she snapped, glaring at the redheaded girl. "You're giving me a headache!" However, Ed paid no mind to her and only sang louder. Thankfully to everyone in the car, they soon came to their destination.

They all stepped out of the car and stared at the brick building that loomed before them. "Here we are," Jett replied, and with a couple of incoherent responses from Spike and Faye, they walked in. "Now, where's a damn map of the place?" Jett asked aloud, studying the display window inside closely.

"Don't look at me," Faye told him. "It was YOUR idea to come here, not mine." Jett scowled at her as Faye just calmly stared at her fingernails, bored. Ed danced around the beginning of one of the halls, singing and squealing about they were now here. With a sigh, Spike walked into the room labeled the "Front Office" and rang the bell that was on the counter.

A middle-aged blond looked up at him and smiled. "Hi! Welcome to Elwood High School. How can I help you?" she asked.

"Could you tell me what room the SAT's are being held in?" he requested.

"You look a little old to be taking the SAT," she commented.

"I failed kindergarten," he lied dryly, but she didn't catch his sarcastic tone.

"It's room 218," she answered, and Spike nodded and left.

Yes, it was true. Spike, Jett, Faye, and Ed were at a public high school to take the SAT's. Apparently, scores had been REALLY low in the city they were at, and the richest resident offered ANYONE who scored a perfect 1600 a 5, 000, 000 wu long prize. Jett had read it in the paper, and immediately got him and Spike signed up. Faye just came to claim a percentage of the winnings, since she would say that she helped their odds of winning. Ed had wanted to join, and no one saw the harm in it. Besides, she was the only one that LOOKED like she was still in high school; it would be easier to get them to let her take it.

Jett had been studying like mad for weeks, trying to cram everything about English and Math into his brain. Spike and Faye had shrugged it off, not caring. And Ed? Ed just played on her computer and with Ein the entire time.

"Yo!" Spike called, catching the group's attention. "It's in room 218."

Soon, they all sat down, and surprisingly, they were the only ones there, minus one girl with curly orange hair and blue eyes. They sat near the back, Jett in front of Spike, Faye sitting two seats from Spike's right, and Ed sitting to her right. Everyone looked comfortable, except for Spike. Poor Spike was so tall, that he was almost squished in the tiny desk, his knees almost coming up to his elbows. The teacher supervisor for the test was a middle-aged man with gray hair and wearing a three-piece suit.

"Hmm, alright chief! My name is Mr. Mintmen, and I'm going to supervise you all today," the teacher began and passed out the packets. He went through the boring procedure of filling out the front and explaining the time breaks. "Now, don't be a jack-donkey. Don't be a what? Jack-donkey. And good luck," he said and went to sit behind his desk.

"Did he just repeat himself and answer his own question?" Spike mumbled to Jett, who he sat behind.

"Yeah, he's some character," Jett agreed, and they opened up their test packets to begin.

Faye sighed, bored as she looked at her fingernails and casually filled in the bubbles at random; her mind was no where near on the test. _Hmmm…I should paint them screaming violet; yes, that shade would look nice on me_, she thought._ I wonder how the races are going. That damn horse Wild Wilbur better win THIS time, or I swear, I'll…_

Spike's mind raced as he silently panicked, looking over the questions as his confusion grew quickly. _Oh shit!_ he thought, _I don't remember this! What the hell is all of this?! I haven't seen this since high school, and I don't even remember looking at HALF of this stuff when I was IN high school!_

Jett thought hard as he worked out the problems and carefully read each question. _Let's see, that goes there, and this goes here. Now, I just divide this by pi and plug X back in…_

Ed hummed as she skimmed over the test briefly, filling out the answers, a big grin on her face as Ein laid quietly at her feet. The only reason Mr. Mintmen didn't say anything about her having Ein was that Ein was so quiet and still that he thought it was a plush dog, not a real one.

After what seemed like the longest three hours in their lives, the SAT's were over. As soon as Mr. Mintmen called time, Spike and Faye quickly scribbled in some random answers while Jett carefully closed up his packet, Ed sat there singing, and the other girl took her blue pen and began to color her fingernails. Mr. Mintmen took up all the tests and went to the front of the room to his odd-looking machine. Now, since this is the future, the powers-to-be decided to score the tests right there and let the test-takers know what they got. So, Mr. Mintmen slid the answer sheets in the scantron-like machine and pulled them out.

"Hmmm…Alright, Spike Spiegel, a 500," he began, reading off the score. Spike scowled as he sat there. Faye turned, pointed at him, and laughed. "Faye Valentine…" Mr. Mintmen continued.

"Huh?" Faye asked, now paying attention to him.

"A 4-5-0."

"What?!" she demanded as it was now Spike's turn to laugh loudly.

"Now, Shion Pitts," he read on, not paying Faye any mind. The redheaded girl looked up. "Very good. 1450." Shion smiled proudly and leaned back in her chair; that was a high enough score to get into her top choice college. "Jett Black…" he called, and everyone held their breath in anticipation. "Showing a little bit of life there. 1230."

At that moment, Jett, Spike, and Faye all slammed their heads down on their desks. "It's over…" Jett murmured, pissed off at himself. They had just spend all that time for nothing.

"And finally, Edward…Edward…" Mr. Mintmen stopped, looking over Ed's full name and decided to give up. Besides, she was the only student left, they would all know it was her. "Edward, you broke the curve!" he exclaimed. "A 1600!"

Immediately, all three of them snapped their heads back up. "WHAT?!" They turned and looked at Ed, gaping in shock. "ED?!?!" they demanded.

However, Ed just only grinned and swayed as she chanted in a singing voice, "Yay! Ed did good!"

-----ONE WEEK LATER----

Spike, Jett, and Faye waited impatiently for William Fence to come out and reward Ed with her cash. Wild, happy reveries filled their minds about what they could get with when they had the money. Ed was oblivious to it all, dancing around, still singing. Finally, William came out and smiled at them. "Ah, are you Edward's…family?" he asked.

"Sure," Spike answered. "You can say that," he mumbled incoherently.

"So, where's the cash?" Faye inquired in a sultry tone, wrapping her arm around William's shoulders.

"Well, actually it's a check," he corrected her.

"Well, let's see it!" Jett replied.

"Alright," William consented, and the three bounty hunters grinned. "Here's your check…for five million wu longs…to go to Ed's choice of any college," he finished, handing them the check.

"WHAT???" they demanded.

"Now, wait a minute!" Spike snapped. "You said that anyone who scored a perfect 1600 would get five million wu longs!"

"For the college of their choice," William explained and pulled out a copy of the article and handed it to them to read. Sure enough, later on in the article, he said that the prize money would go towards college education of the student's choice. Silently, they just stared at the article while William went to Ed. "Here, this goes to you, young lady," he replied and gave her the check. Ed took it and said thanks and showed it to Ein.

"Ein, look! Look at the pretty paper! Ed's a smart one!" she chimed, and as if agreeing with her, Ein barked once, wagging his short tail.

"So much for the perfect score…" the three now depressed bounty hunters grumbled.


End file.
